By MOLLY MURRAY
The News Journal
03/14/2006

A Delaware newspaper man was killed in a head-on collision on U.S. 301 near Centreville, Md., police said today.

James L. Cresson, 60, of Milford, died when the Dodge Caravan he was driving collided head-on with a 10-wheel delivery truck shortly before 7 p.m. Monday, according to Maryland State Police.

According to police, Cresson was driving the wrong way on northbound U.S. 301 near Hayden Clark Road in Queen Anne’s County. A trooper tried to intercept Cresson and turn him around but before that could happen, Cresson collided with the truck.

The truck then slid into the police cruiser. Cresson was pronounced dead at the scene.

The truck driver, Chung Chang, 49, of Palisades Park, N.J., and his passenger Jang Hong, 51, of Flushing, N.Y., were treated at Chester River Hospital Center.

The police officer, a 39-year-old corporal assigned to the Centreville barracks, was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with non life-threatening injuries.

Cresson, a reporter with the Cape Gazette, a twice-weekly paper that circulates in Milton, Lewes, Rehoboth and Dewey Beach, was a native of Milford. He worked for several weekly newspapers over the years and for a time ran his own newspaper that circulated in Long Neck.

He was an authority on baseball, especially the many minor league teams that played in the area prior to World War II.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

James L. Cresson,
Cape Gazette journalist
James Leedom Cresson, 60, a longtime Delaware journalist, died Monday, March 13, 2006 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident near Centreville, Md.
Services for the Milford resident will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 18, in Reformation Lutheran Church at 613 Lakeview Avenue in Milford.
Mr. Cresson was born in Milford May 12, 1945, the son of James and Edith Marjorie Mulholland Cresson. He graduated from Fishburn Military Academy, Waynesboro, Va., in 1963 and attended University of Maryland and Tusculum College in Tennessee.
In 1968, at the height of the war in Vietnam, Mr. Cresson joined the U.S. Army.
He developed his skills as writer and photographer while serving a year’s tour of duty in Vietnam and continued to use those skills over the next several decades as reporter, photographer, editor and publisher in Delaware.
At various different times over those years he wrote for Delaware State News, Middletown Transcript, Delaware Coast Press and the Cape Gazette in Lewes where he was employed at the time of his death. Prior to joining the Cape Gazette in 1998, Cresson and his wife, Corinne, edited and published the Long Neck News in Sussex County.
He won several awards over the years from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association and was recently notified that he had taken a first-place prize for his reporting on Delaware Department of Transportation financial problems related to the depleted Transportation Trust Fund.
“Jim was a dog of a reporter,” said Cape Gazette Sports Editor Dave Frederick. “I remember a story he did on the pit bull maulings over in Delmar. It was an amazing piece of journalism. And most recently he did a piece on the new Korean War Memorial in Georgetown. It just struck me how much information – including local folks who had served in that war – that he found for the story.”
As a veteran, Mr. Cresson was particularly sympathetic to veterans’ issues and proud of his service in Vietnam. “He told me a story once of his last couple of days in Vietnam,” said his wife, Corinne.
“He was stationed in Saigon and went out to interview a Green Beret troop. He spent the night with them in the jungle. They went out the next morning on patrol and he went back to Saigon to file the story. That whole troop disappeared – never another word from them. That stuck with him.”
Between journalism stints in Delaware, Mr. Cresson traveled the world, making his way as a wanderer through Africa and Europe. “He hitchhiked across the U.S. at least three times,” said Corinne, “and lived in Mexico and Arizona before returning to Delaware to stay in 1985.”
Mr. Cresson loved to sing and play guitar, was an accomplished carver and woodworker and had uncanny talent for finding native American artifacts – especially arrowheads – in freshly plowed Delaware fields.
He was a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Milford and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Cresson is survived by a daughter and son, Tacy and Caleb, of Milford. He is also survived by his mother, Marjorie Cresson Dobson of Atlantic Beach, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Jessica Coffey, Milford; a stepson and daughter-in-law, Jeremy and Dee Coffey of Cocoa, Fla.; a sister and brother-in-law, Elaine and Larry Price, Glen Mills, Pa.; a niece and nephew, Susan Price and Brad Price of Glen Mills, Pa.; and one grandchild, Ryleigh Coffey of Cocoa, Fla.
Rogers Funeral Home in Milford is handling funeral arrangements. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to: SPCA – Sussex Chapter, 22918 DuPont Blvd., Georgetown, DE 19947.

...

JIMMY C – Last Monday evening the Cape Gazette and Cape Region lost one of the family as Jim Cresson was killed in a car accident. Jim, who I called “Jimmy C,” will be missed by all and always remembered by me. Every time I stopped by the office, Jim always took an interest in running and racing asking me about events and where I was running next. Jim told me once that I should be proud of how many different people I am touching through the running scene and I always joked with him that he had more people at Cape school board meetings than I had on the starting line. Jim was an outstanding reporter who was involved in many stories in our community and we should all take a moment to remember him.
Tim Bamforth

...

LITTLE JIMMY - I called him Little Jimmy and he called me Big Fred. Jim Cresson and I were friends and colleagues at the Cape Gazette. We were the same age. He made me laugh and I made him laugh. We respected each other for what we did and we did it differently. Cresson digging into a story was a lot better than me. I always fall back on being an essayist and escaping through jokes. You can find me in my writings but you couldn’t find Jimmy. He was the true reporter.

I don’t know how other newspapers work, but the Gazette is family and it’s successful because Dennis and Trish know how to harness talent and let the ponies run. Jimmy was a Full Metal Jacket Vietnam journalist. He could dog a story like no one I ever knew. And he was an action character in his life beyond what adventurers in movies could ever imagine. But his inner demons could only be tethered temporarily. We are all tethered temporarily like helium balloons with different precipitating factors that could set us off, but mostly we stay under control.

I’ve lost three guy friends over the last two years who should still be here, but their families certainly lost a lot more. I don’t weep for Jimmy, who went out speeding down the wrong side of a road endangering others. Was he in his right mind? If I could ask him that question he would laugh and say, “Definitely not!” We all love and lose friends. We all live and learn. And we all lose control. God bless Little Jimmy!

Fredman

...

Cresson vignettes
won’t be forgotten
It was with great sadness that I just learned about the death of Cape Gazette journalist Jim Cresson. Jim was a master of his craft and he was also an outstanding human being who cared deeply and wrote insightfully about the welfare of both people and animals. 
Additionally, from the very inception of the federal/state/local Delaware United Open Water Lifesaving Program, Jim was always there reporting on the latest activities and on the many successes of the program.
It was a pleasure last summer listening to him share stories with Surgeon General Richard Carmona who was visiting and participating in the program. Both men had served in Vietnam and Jim’s veteran’s status brought with it a special credibility which I know played a role in the Surgeon General’s taking a real liking to Jim.
Something that I will never forget which gave me a special appreciation of Jim’s humanity was a message which he sent me about his time in Vietnam.
He described riding in an Army truck from the field into Saigon and passing a beautiful young Vietnamese woman who was riding a motorbike in the same direction. She smiled at Jim and he did likewise, her very smile having raised his heart in a strange land filled with danger and homesickness. Jim’s truck continued on to Saigon.
At some point while driving through the city, Jim saw what looked like an accident ahead. The beautiful young woman lay dead beside the road, her motorbike lying crushed beside her after being hit by another military truck shortly before.
Jim never forgot the young woman and the memory of that day remained with him for the rest of his life with its great joy followed by its soul-shattering sorrow.
The world is better for Jim’s having been with us. And it is poorer for his passing.
Dr. Peter I. Hartsock
Captain, U.S. Public Health Service
Co-Director, Delaware United Open Water Lifesaving Program

...

Senator provides tribute
to Cape Gazette reporter
I want to extend my condolences to Jim Cresson’s family and friends. I had the privilege of knowing Jim for many years and we pursued many issues and stories together. Jim brought a unique sense of enthusiasm and commitment to his news coverage. It was clear that he loved our area and its people and that for him, covering the news was a lot more than just a job.
My feeling for Jim was made deeper by the fact that he was a fellow Vietnam veteran. He had a great pride in his military service and he had a deep and heartfelt understanding of vets’ issues.
Last week he called me about a public hearing by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control regarding the Indian River Power Plant. Jim and I had visited the plant together on more than one occasion and he had written a lot over the years about the plant’s emissions. At the public hearing he directed a positive comment to officials of NRG, the company that now owns the power plant, about their proposals for a $1 billion investment in a new coal gasification plant, suggesting that it would be a good thing for the environment and for our area.
I hope that some day I can tell his children personally about what a fine man their Dad was, about the high quality of his writing and about his enthusiasm for his work. I would mention also the deep pride that he took in having served his country in uniform in time of war.
I will miss him.
George H. Bunting Jr.
State Senator
20th District

...

Old friend fondly
recalls Jim Cresson
This letter is one, not only of condolence and sympathy, but one of great friendship.
This week we have all lost a wonderful friend. Due to an automobile accident this week, we all lost Jim Cresson. He will always be Jimmy to me. He grew up around the corner from us on Seabury Avenue in Milford. A cute little boy with curly hair, so very polite and nice.
His father had a position at Caulk company. He is now deceased. His mother was a typical housewife of that era. Taking care of Jimmy, his sister and her husband was her purpose in life.
Jimmy was our paperboy. He always came in with a smile to collect his money and clock the card that we had paid. Through all of the years he has always called me Mrs. Dyer.
Jimmy came into my life once again this summer. I think it was meant to be. He wrote an article for the paper concerning me. We had the opportunity to talk several times during the interviews. I feel the article was written with extreme kindness and caring from the memories of his childhood.
Jimmy called me last week with a question regarding an article he was writing. I really felt he just wanted to talk with a maternal friend. He told me he had pneumonia and had been really sick. We chatted a while and, like a mother, I asked him to please rest and try to get over that pneumonia. I will always cherish that phone call and the article.
We will all miss Jim Cresson. He was actually known all over the state. He was a newspaperman. They are tough, unafraid, determined, talented writers, kind, gentle and not ashamed to shed a tear.
The world has lost a shining light.
Sadly,
Ann Dyer
Rehoboth Beach

...

Jim Cresson, a longtime Delaware newspaper writer, combat journalist, Army veteran of the Vietnam War, husband, father, musician and artist, was killed in a motor vehicle accident near Centreville, Md., Monday, March 13. Cresson was 60.

Maryland State Police said Cresson, of Seaberry Avenue in Milford, was driving alone just before 7 p.m., in a 2001 Dodge Caravan southbound in the northbound lanes of Route 301. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Maryland state trooper Cpl. Arthur G. Lowman, 40, is in serious condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was flown by state police helicopter. He is undergoing treatment for police said are not life-threatening injuries.

Two men who were in a 10-wheel box truck owned by DS Seafood Corp. of New Jersey, were also flown to shock trauma; one has been released.

Maryland State Police said the Centreville Barracks received numerous calls from motorists reporting a Dodge minivan was being driven southbound in the northbound lanes of Route 301 headed toward Centreville.

Lowman left the Centerville Barracks with lights and siren in a marked patrol car, headed north on Route 301 where traffic was light to moderate.

Within two minutes, in the area of Route 301 and Route 405, Lowman was passed by the van being driven southbound in the northbound lanes.

Lowman said he immediately turned his car around and drove south in the northbound lanes following the van.

Police said within seconds, Lowman was alongside the van. According to police, Cresson, without warning, steered the van into the side of the patrol car attempting to force it off the road. Lowman saw an approaching vehicle and maneuvered rapidly to push the van back across the road and out of the path of the oncoming car. After pushing the van out of the way of one car, Lowman backed off.

Shortly afterwards, Cresson’s van was struck head-on by the northbound truck. The truck then sideswiped the driver’s side of Lowman’s patrol car, sending both vehicles into the median.

The van came to rest between the slow lane and the northbound shoulder.

Police said they have no information to explain why Cresson was driving in the wrong direction of traffic. Alcohol was found in the van but it has not been determined that Cresson had been drinking, police said. The investigation is continuing.

People who got to know Cresson were sometimes treated to one or more of his multiple talents. He could pick up an acoustic guitar and sing songs of his own composition, some of them penned during his travels in Europe, Africa and Mexico.

In his talented hands, a plain plank of teakwood salvaged from a derelict boat would become a deeply carved piece of artwork imbued with his spirit.

Rick “Sharkey” Shindledecker, owner of Sharkey’s restaurant in Dewey Beach, had known Cresson for years.

“When he covered a story he didn’t start out with a knife. He got the facts, he balanced it and he made it fair. He could take a weak story and turn it into something of great consequence,” said Shindledecker.

“I considered Jim my best friend, the times that we spent together and the laughs that we had. I respected him as a professional. I admired him for the passion he had for his job,” said Shindledecker.

Shindledecker, whose father owned a newspaper, said he always saw a bit of his dad in Cresson.

“In a picture I have of my dad he has that reporter’s notebook sticking out of his hip pocket. If you ever watched Jim walking around, he always had one of those long tablets sticking out of his hip pocket,” said Shindledecker.

Jim Salmon, public information officer for the Delaware River and Bay Authority, said Cresson was unique among those working in the media business.

“I have dealt with many reporters and media representatives during my service at the Authority and none was more professional, hard working, or truth-oriented than Jim. I will miss him,” said Salmon.

Mike Bullard, an experienced wreck diver, amateur archaeologist and author of “Diving the China Wreck,” said Cresson was among few who showed interest in the story about a schooner found in the Delaware Bay laden with tons of china.

“The news article he wrote is hanging on my wall and I see it as I’m walking out my front door. I think of Jim everyday.

“Jim wasn’t just a reporter, he cared about what he did. He’d check a story out when nobody else would,” Bullard said.

Cresson’s love of a good story involving the two-legged kind would frequently extend to stories about the four-legged kind or those with two legs and lots of feathers.

“He just loved animals. He was always accessible and he was a man who was just a straight shooter,” said Lt. Jerry Linkerhof, manager of the Delaware SPCA in Georgetown.

Linkerhof said Cresson’s coverage of animal-related stories ranged from investigating wild dog packs that had roamed the Milton area to getting the word out for SPCA fund-raisers.

“He was involved and helpful. I looked at Jim like a brother,” Linkerhof said.

...

Young man loses
valued mentor
The downtrodden of Sussex County lost an advocate and friend with the tragic passing of reporter Jim Cresson. He took it upon himself to work very hard for people who the system, for some reason, left behind. The people of Ellendale and West Rehoboth found a sympathetic home for their complaints against government inaction. Mobile home residents knew Jim would always let their side be heard as rising lot rents pushed them out of their homes. Veterans knew he shared the bond built between young men in war, and they confided their pain and patriotism with him.
Animal lovers, from pet owners to the Delaware SPCA, counted on him to tell the stories of those who can’t speak. In a time when reporters and writers have been exposed as exploitative, fame-hungry and often untruthful, Jim nobly exemplified the quiet power found in being honest and fair with everyone, even when it is unpopular.
On the other side of that coin, Delaware’s civic leaders knew he would treat them with respect and professionalism and never consciously manipulate their words or situations unfairly. It is important to recognize the professional compliment Dennis Forney paid Jim when he said anyone would talk to him.
He also fathered two beautiful children, Caleb and Tacy, with his wife Corinne. He spoke proudly of them and with loving and tender concern about Corinne. Photos Jim took of his family decorated his office and their highlights always came up in conversation. It is such a shame Caleb and Tacy will not get to know their father as well as they should have, and hopefully their father’s friends will remember to tell them about him.
I knew Jim as a friend of my family and a colleague at this paper. I consider myself fortunate to have known and learned from him, and look warmly at his memory. It seems young men often receive a lot of criticism for their youth and too few examples from their elders. Jim always gave advice tempered by patience and wisdom and cautioned against a rush to judgment as the basis for action.
I will try to take the lessons I learned from him and hold them close.
Karl J. Chalabala
New York City

...

DelDOT spokesman
pays tribute to Cresson
I wanted to take this time to let everyone know what a true professional Jim Cresson was. For many at the Delaware Department of Transportation, his death was met with great sadness. Dealing regularly with the state’s many media outlets, no one person better represented himself than Jim Cresson.
He was honest, upfront, determined and fair. Most of all, he was a darn good man and it truly was an honor to know him.
Darrel W. Cole
Director
Office of Public Relations
Delaware Department of Transportation

...

Cresson’s shoes will
be difficult to fill
We were very fortunate to have worked with Jim on many issues over the last eight years. He covered The Historic Lewes Cat Society because of his love of animals and due to his articles on Sunset Park in Dewey Beach, we received the public support and donations to complete that project.
He was very kind to us when he featured us in one of his Saltwater Portraits in the Gazette. We will miss him and his support over the years and know how terribly he will be missed by his family and friends. We were just at a meeting with him in Dover last week about the regulations to be incited for the Indian River Power Plant. His articles over the past few years about the serious pollution and associated health problems caused by this plant were instrumental in alerting the residents of Sussex County to this danger. We will miss his honest deep approach to the issues and only hope that whoever takes up his coverage of the Indian River Power Plant and other issues at the state level will be as insightful.
Vivian and Bob Barry
Lewes and Dewey Beach

...

Reporter’s death
shocks and saddens
For the first time since the Cape Gazette was published, I didn’t want to read your paper. Not because I don’t like the newspaper, but because of the front page news it contained about Jim Cresson.
I was so shocked and saddened to learn of his tragic death. Jim was a gentleman and a gentle man. He had a demeanor that you couldn’t resist when he questioned you to get information for a story. He was concerned about your interests and interested about your concerns. Genuinely.
To say he will be missed is not enough. His way, his persona, his professionalism, his soft voice and sincerity, his talent are also what I and the whole community will miss deeply. Truly, Jim was a treasure. And now he’s gone.
My thoughts and sentiments are with his family and the extended family of friends, coworkers and everyone whom he touched.
Michael Tyler
President
Citizens Coalition Inc.
Lewes

...

A colleague’s note:
Jim Cresson was a storyteller, a journalist who used pens and pads, cameras and computers, telephones and fax machines but above all, he used the power of his ever-questioning mind to find the core of whatever interested him. And just about everything genuinely interested Jim.

My doorless office cubicle is directly across from the cubicle Jim once physically occupied. Many times in the past year and a half I’d look over at Jim, his head down, totally concentrating on the keyboard, oblivious to the world around him, smoothly putting words on the computer screen.

He once said to me, “It gives me great comfort to look over there and see you working.” At first I thought he might have been joking about my work ethic, but he wasn’t.

Somehow, Jim had looked into my core – or sensed me trying to divine his. I think he knew that he, too, gave me great comfort.

Henry J. Evans Jr.

...

A FINAL NOTE ON JIMMY – Cape Gazette reporter Jim Cresson died this week in a tragic accident near Centreville, Md. Jim was a gentleman in the classic sense of the word. I admired the important and trusting contacts he made over the decades as a Delaware journalist and am proud that his final eight years were spent writing and photographing for the Cape Gazette. It was his longest stint in any one place. His gentle ways led to confidences that led to many scoops – the true fire for any real news reporter.

Jimmy spent many peaceful moments combing freshly plowed fields in the spring near Frederica, searching for arrowheads. He had a great eye and his collection was impressive. Besides the loving family that Jim cherished, his greatest accomplishment, however, was his woodworking skill. Inspired by nature and the spirits that were his friends, Jim found turtles, whales, fish and feathers in blocks of wood. With the patience of a monk, he carved and sculpted, sanded and polished to create items of great beauty.

Fellow journalist Henry Evans hit the nail on the head when he called Jimmy a renaissance man. He was so talented, and those talents will be missed.

Dennis Forney

Eulogy - March 18, 2006

We’re not gathered here today to canonize Jim Cresson. He and I both agreed that we would need a lot more time on this earth to get to that status. But we are here today to capture as many of Jim’s fine qualities as possible, for our hearts, before he disappears quietly off into the universe – like an Iroquois woodsman.

Perfection is hard to come by. Have you ever wondered about why Moses brought us the 10 commandments in the first place? Why they’re posted in churches and courtrooms and preached about constantly around the world? Because we’re all human, and imperfect, and that distinguishes us from God. How else would we know we’re not God? Just a quick survey, how many of you . . . No, that’s not a good idea.

But, do I hold Jim Cresson in high esteem? Maybe if I start out talking about Albert Einstein, you’ll understand my respect for Jim. Someone once asked the great genius if he could explain his mind-blowing theory of relativity in simple terms. He teased his hair a little and then responded: “Think of the theory of relativity in terms of how we perceive time. For example, if you’re sitting next to a pretty girl, one minute flies by like an instant. But if you have your hand on a hot stove, a minute would seem like an eternity. That’s relativity.”

I mention it because for many of us the minutes and hours ticked away remarkably slowly this week. The pall of sadness that accompanied news of Jim’s death hung weights on the hands of the clock. It was tough to accept that the sands of time had run out for Jimmy.
Why do I call a 60-year old man, with the craggy features of Mount Rushmore faces, Jimmy? Really, it comes very easily.

My earlier reference to an Iroquois woodsman is taken from Stephen Mitchell’s introduction to his magnificent translation of the classic Chinese manifesto on wisdom called the Tao Te Ching. People in the office cringe when I bring out the book. They – like you here today – have no idea how long I’m going to go on. But I will say simply that this book of essential wisdom was authored thousands of years ago by a man named Lao Tzu. Mitchell tells us that the name Lao Tzu can be translated in a couple of ways: either as Old Master, or, more picturesquely, as the old boy. And that’s how I think of Jimmy. As an old boy.

With the adventurous spirit of a Huck Finn, Jimmy lived an incredibly rich life. Vietnam, Africa, Europe, Arizona, Mexico . . . Milford. Milford may be the richest part of his experience because it was here that he developed the strong sense of community that remained with him all of his life. This town and his family gave him an anchor that allowed him to roam far and wide with an innermost sense of security.

It’s testimony to his easy and endearing style that when Jimmy’s wanderings brought him through the door of the Cape Gazette to become part of our family, he supplanted Dave Frederick from his desk and cubicle. He did it so deftly and masterfully, little by little over time, that it never raised so much as an offhanded wisecrack in Fredman’s column. Of course is didn’t hurt that Fredman had a full-time job at Cape Henlopen High School, enchanting his students with endless stories, and teaching civics and life lessons without them even realizing it. Fredman and Jimmy have much in common.

Jimmy rapidly made his family our family. Many was the day – Jim and Corinne juggling their jobs - when Caleb and Tacy were sitting on the floor beside Jim’s desk playing with cars and dolls or coloring on the kitchen table under the watchful eyes of all of us. They have the polite and even temperament of their parents and early on developed the sense of mutual respect. It felt good to see them head off on spring break to see Jim’s mom in Florida and visit Disney World or hear them speaking of visits with Corinne’s daughter and son, Jessica and Jeremy.

The bottom line is, Jimmy Cresson was a classic gentle man of tremendous talent. Polite and considerate, he dressed neatly and cleanly, and knew how to dress for the occasion. He knew what Winston Churchill meant when he said: “Eat what you like, but dress for others.” Jimmy personified the lines from the great western song Home on the Range: “where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day.”

His gentlemanly ways opened many doors and were ultimately the key to his success as a journalist. He built confidence in people and with those confidences came great sources. People trusted Jimmy. Those were his hunting and gathering tools, along with his notebook and camera. And he fully embraced the journalistic admonition to all young reporters: follow the story, don’t lead it.

Never was his boyish quality more evident than when he would sidle into my or Trish’s office looking like the cat that had just swallowed the canary. Looking at us over his shoulder with the smile of a scoop coming on: “Just talked to one of my sources . . .”
And he would talk to everyone in the office, enjoying his status as a senior Delaware newsman. He gave generously of his time and expertise to younger reporters and won many prizes.

We were just notified recently that Jim had won a first prize for the diligence and incisiveness of a series of stories he did on the extensive problems associated with the depletion of the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Trust Fund. It was a story that Jimmy realized was huge very early on and one that he made his own.

Jimmy covered Delaware and he loved his beat. He was a native Delawarean and – just as Magnolia claims – it was the center of the universe as far as he was concerned. Lots of times when he was headed to Dover for a meeting, he would wear a tie – just like George Carey – with a blue hen chicken on it or the seal of Delaware. He loved it all.
One day, between Ruth Ann Minner’s election as Delaware’s first female governor and her inauguration, Jimmy came into the office to tell us one of those only-in-Delaware stories. That morning he had been in the Milford Wal-Mart and happened to run into the governor- elect. They started talking – both being Milford folk – and she allowed as how she was picking out a pair of shoes for her inauguration. That tickled him and it was fun sharing the story.

Then, much more recently, in the same vein, Jimmy was working on a story involving the governor and an economic initiative she was planning to announce. Jimmy wanted to get a jump on the story so he called her at home one Sunday evening. The governor answered her phone but would give very few details, wanting to save the thunder, and Jimmy came away mostly empty-handed. The next day Jim received a call from one of the governor’s assistants telling him that the governor was very upset that she had been reached at home and demanded to know where Jim had gotten the number. In his simple and straightforward fashion, he explained that he had looked it up in the local phone book.

It was a pleasure to watch Jimmy work. He had the proverbial nose for news and he knew who was making it and where to find them. He knew the right questions, and like any newsman worth his or her salt, he knew not to ask his best questions until the other news reporters had left. He knew what details to put in and which to leave out. He also knew how to sit down and transform what he gathered into intelligible stories, written with insight, compassion, and detail that appealed to the senses. Whether it was pit bulls, overcrowded SPCA facilities, a Ruritan Christmas dinner, or a VFW dedication, Jim knew what the stories were and the photographs that brought them to life.

He was so methodical. He would tear the pages out of his reporter’s notebook and spread them out on his desk in the order he intended to write. He knew that time plus effort equals accomplishment and he would produce. Hard news, features, portraits, photos. He produced, steadily; a career – with a few breaks in between - spanning nearly 40 years.

For all his polite sociability however, Jimmy also treasured his solitary time, and he approached it as methodically as he did his writing, whether he was hunting for arrowheads or sitting in his shop listening to music and working with wood. Not that he was a loner. He understood innately the real connection between all people – people of his own time, people of previous ages.

Now, you didn’t think that hearing from a newspaperman, talking about a newspaperman, that you were going to get away without a little stronger dose of literature did you? Jimmy and I often joked that as newspaper writers we are hacks, and proud of it. Henry Evans told us recently that he wanted to join our hack club as well.

The truth is that many newspaper writers consider themselves undiscovered literary figures and that sooner or later we will pen the next great American novel. When I think of Jimmy’s connection to others, his love of nature and people, and his inherent spirituality, I can’t help but think of a poem from one of my favorite hacks, Robert Frost: The Tuft of Flowers.

POEM

My final images of Jimmy are these.
It’s a Sunday afternoon and he has on a pair of leather clodhoppers – the same ones he will polish up that evening to wear to an interview the next morning. He’s headed north to a field on the banks of the Murderkill River. It’s Cresson land and in past ages it was the hunting grounds of Lenape Indians.

It’s spring and the field has just been plowed, and a rain the day before has washed the turned clods. Jimmy is a master arrowhead collector. He walks the furrows slowly and combs the clods with his eyes, the whole time communing with those peoples who have come before - those hunters in the dew.

He picks up every stony item that doesn’t look like dirt and he finds a fine point, perched by the eroding rainfall atop a clod - an offering from the past. His methodical mind considers the patient chipping of flint against quartz that created the points and edges and notches of the arrowhead. With the screeching of a pair of red-tail hawks soaring overhead celebrating life, and nothing around him but the lines of pines and oaks, the clean, uncluttered field, and the marshes along the river, he feels himself communing with the native American that made the arrowhead. He knows, and the arrowhead confirms for him, that in his clearest of thinking – when all the dendrites and synapses are firing in perfect harmony, that the key to happiness is to live patiently, methodically, in tune with the seasons and the universe, one day at a time.

He becomes that native American again that evening when once again he is alone, in the woodworking shop behind his house. He is carving a turtle. The turtle itself is a metaphor for patient and methodical striving toward successful living. He chips away at the wood, taking away layer by layer, as methodically as he approaches writing a story, and watches a thing of beauty that will emerge with further carving and sanding and polishing.

Those serene moments of discovery and accomplishment driven by patience must have seemed as God-like perfection to Jimmy. On the Sunday before he died, he found another beautiful quartz arrowhead that he brought home to Corinne. He knew she favored the quartz points. She recalled, a day or two after he died, holding the point in her hand at the kitchen table in their home, that Jimmy said he wanted to be remembered more for his woodworking than anything else.

Jimmy Cresson. An old boy. A professional journalist. A master carver. A gentle man.

Dennis Forney

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Fallen reporter’s wife
thanks community
My children and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of support and affection that we have received during this very difficult time.
I know that Jim would have been overwhelmed by the wonderful gestures of so many people just as we have been. The cards, letters and visits were so appreciated. I always told my husband that he didn’t give himself the credit that he deserved. He was an amazing husband, father and man and he will be greatly missed. This has been made so apparent in the last two weeks. I especially want to thank the Cape Gazette family that has been so supportive from the first minute and has continued to be there for us in so many ways. They are truly the most wonderful group of people in the world. I understand why Jim was with them for so many years without ever thinking about going anywhere else.
Corinne Cresson
Milford

...

Dewey Beach to honor
Jim Cresson with tree planting
The Town of Dewey Beach will hold a dedication ceremony for a tree, in memory of Jim Cresson, at 3 p.m., Sunday, May 28, at Sunset Park on Dagsworthy Street in Dewey Beach. All are invited to attend and also to share their memories to honor a friend and special journalist who covered his country and Dewey Beach for many years.
The plaque on the tree reads: “In Memory of Jim Cresson 1945-2006. A quiet and gentle man who served his country and Dewey Beach for many years as an insightful, dedicated and honest journalist.” The tree was given to the town by Vivian and Bob Barry, whom Cresson supported in many ways, especially in their work developing the park and rescuing cats.
Cresson, a Cape Gazette journalist, died in a car collision March 13. To contribute to an educational account set up for his two young children, send a check made out to Cresson Children Educational Fund and deposit at any Wilmington Trust branch or to the Cape Gazette: P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958.

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Trish Vernon photo

The Town of Dewey Beach provided space in Sunset Park where a tree was planted and dedicated in memory of Jim Cresson, a journalist who died in an automobile collision in March. Bob and Vivian Barry provided the dedication plaque. Shown is Cresson’s family, as his wife Corinne thanks everyone for the kindnesses and support her family has received. Shown are (l-r) Bob and Vivian Barry, Corinne Cresson, Tacy and Caleb Cresson.

Dewey bids farewell to journalist; dedicates tree
Ceremony releases Jim Cresson’s spirit; heals family
By Kerry Kester
Cape Gazette staff
Nanticoke Native American Charlie Clark conducted a releasing and healing ceremony during a tree dedication in memory of Jim Cresson Sunday, May 29, at Sunset Park in Dewey Beach. Cresson, who died in a car crash in March, left behind his wife, Corinne, and two children: Caleb, 11, and Tacy, 8.

Clark, a former journalist and longtime friend of Cresson’s, said a few words to family members before he began the ceremony. “Caleb, you are wise beyond your years,” said Clark, in reference to Caleb’s comment that his father’s memory will always live. “Jim will never be gone. He’s everywhere around you. Your father is in a different spot. We need to release him, because he has work to do. Wherever he is in the spirit world, he has work to do.”

Clark praised Cresson’s career as a journalist known for his accuracy and fair reporting on community events. “Jim told it like it was,” said Clark. “Jim didn’t mind stirring up a hornet’s nest when it was needed, and Jim was a compassionate man.”

One of Cresson’s hobbies was hunting and collecting arrowheads. Clark explained that it is sometimes difficult for Native Americans to feel comfortable with people collecting artifacts representing their heritage, but he never felt that way about Cresson’s hobby.

Cresson, said Clark, revered Native American culture, knew what the artifacts meant, and deeply appreciated their connection to the land and the first people who inhabited it. In fact, Clark had on numerous occasions gone arrowhead hunting with Cresson. “He had an affinity for Native American people,” said Clark.

Clark’s releasing ceremony, with songs and chants in the Nanticoke tongue, was to release Cresson’s spirit to go beyond the stars, Clark explained. He began by sprinkling offerings of tobacco on the ground to the four spirits – symbolized by facing east, west, south and north. The intent, said Clark, is to ask the spirits to accept Cresson in a good way.

Native Americans have four sacred plants, said Clark: cedar, sage, sweet grass and tobacco. Tobacco symbolizes a father’s love via Mother Earth. Following Clark’s bid to the spirits to accept Cresson, he offered a healing song for Cresson’s family members and friends. “Jim had the spirit,” said Clark.

At the conclusion of the Native American ceremony, some attendees offered memories of Cresson. “Jim was the epitome of a hometown journalist,” said former Dewey Beach Mayor Bob Frederick. “He was a pitbull, and I appreciated that.”

“It’s really sad to lose that kind of talent in a community,” said Anna LeGates, who grew up with Cresson in the Milford community.

Bob and Vivian Barry, and the Town of Dewey Beach provided the tree and plaque intended to memorialize the man who covered the news of Dewey Beach for many years. The plaque reads: “In Memory of Jim Cresson 1945-2006. A quiet and gentle man who served his country and Dewey Beach for many years as an insightful, dedicated and honest journalist.”

The tree was given to the town by the Barrys, whom Cresson supported in many ways, especially in their work developing Sunset Park and rescuing cats.

Cresson was a Cape Gazette journalist who started his career writing stories for the U.S. Army while he served in Vietnam. After he left the military, he worked at newspapers throughout the Cape Region or elsewhere in the state for approximately 30 years. He wrote passionately about animals, the Earth and social injustice.

To contribute to an educational account set up for his two young children, send a check made out to Wilmington Trust with “Cresson Children Educational Fund” written on the memo line, and deposit at any Wilmington Trust branch or to the Cape Gazette: P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958.